Carballal Albariño, Cepas Vellas | 2023

Some Albariño wines are fruit-forward, others are mineral-forward, this is the latter. I like both styles, for different reasons, but when I crave that rocky, cold stone minerality, this hits the spot. It's not aromatic; the nose is reserved, more like a cool-climate Frenchie white. Benito Vázquez, of Carballal, was one of a handful of growers planting Albariño in the 1970s.  A distinguished "Knight of Albariño," he was part of the group responsible for promoting Rías Baixas as its own DO in 1980 and provided stainless steel tanks for some of the first commercially successful Albariño wines. Made since 1986, this bottling comes from vines planted by Benito in the 1970s, at the of foot of Monte Castrove, in the center of the Salnes Valley. Aged on its lees for four months in steel and finishing with 13% alcohol, the generosity of the wine is purely powered by old vines. Salty lemon, cold rocks, and fields of green remind me of an elegant Sancerre or Chablis, rather than a punchy Albariño. Or is this how all Albariño should be? A first-class, mineral bomb! ~Allegra A